EMISSARY DAZZLES ON RETURN

Emissary justified Mike Moroney’s high opinion of the import with an excellent win first-up at Listed level in today’s Heatherlie Stakes (1800m) at Caulfield.

Although well back through the early stages, Jye McNeil was able to creep closer approaching the home turn without expending too much energy and then Emissary did the rest, coming through between horses finishing powerfully to score, much to the delight of his trainer.

"He showed us glimpses last time around. We bought a couple of horses out of the English Derby and he was one of them and he's really gone on with it,” Mike said. "I think you'll see him at his best this season now. We gelded him straight away when we brought him across and I think that's been a big help.

"He's a really nice horse and he's going to be a lightweight chance in some of these Cups I would think.

"We sort of threw him in the deep end a bit in the autumn because we thought he was good enough and now he comes to handicaps, he's going to be nicely in I would think, the Naturalism next start looks the natural progression depending on how he comes through this.”

McNeil was full of praise for the six-year-old. "It was a great first-up performance. I trialled him last week and he went fantastic at Flemington, so I knew he'd run really well today,” McNeil said. “I just needed an ounce of luck from the awkward barrier draw. I got that, had the right run and he was fantastic."

"In the trial he just gave me such a good feel and he did it all on his own merit and today he just backed it up with a fantastic performance.

"Obviously today wasn't his goal, he's going to improve as we move forward, but I know the team have high expectations of him so it was good that he delivered today."